Windows Phone grabs a bit more of the U.S. market

The new U.S. smartphone market share numbers for February 2014 from comScore show Android made a slight gain since last November. Android grew from 51.9 percent to 52.1, while Apple gained 0.1 percentage points to hit 41.3 percent. BlackBerry saw a dip, while Microsoft climbed ever so slightly to hit 3.4 percent market share.

In hardware, Apple remains in the lead at 41.3 percent. Samsung came in second with 27 percent, up 1 point over the November period. LG came in third at 6.8 percent, while Motorola and HTC came in fourth and fifth, respectively.

If MS don't gear up and get this OS moving, as a developer, I will dump this platform, and I doubt I am the only one on the planet. Bragging about all this stuff in 8.1 that is already present elsewhere and has been for ages, and ooh aren't we lucky to get a notification center now, is hard to listen to. And what's with this trend of releasing software that should be finished, as Beta? Its because the software industry is Mickey Mouse where you can get away with it. Its a good thing we don't get that from professional sectors: hey guys, here's your new Airbus 380 climb aboard, but remember its a Beta and we want you to find the problems, because we didn't have time to complete it and test it; or: hospital patients, your new MRI might damage your brain, cos its just a Beta, but we welcome your feedback. This is not the direction software development should be taking, and Microsoft as a leader should stop that sh*t, and use Betas as it was intended, not an excuse to release stuff under time pressure for the public at large to test for them.

A bit of a overreaction. You don't think Goog and Apple don't release stuff that is "Beta"? At least MS calls it Beta. Apple Maps was certainly a beta. Google just pushes just about anything out there at will. As for adding stuff that other phone OS's already have. Yeah, they are, but if they put their own unique spin on it (which they are doing) that's alright by me. Basically all three have the same stuff on their phone it's more about what "expirence" you prefer. I prefer WP. It just feels right for me, and I've used them all. I understand your frustration and MS's new vision has been mobile first, so things should be ramping up at a much faster pace. Hell, I endured the last 3 years, and I'm not jumping ship when things are starting to look really, really good.

I agree. I used to have an iPhone, I was skeptical about moving to WP, but when I saw the Lumia icon and its features, I thought why not?! Its been a month regretless. Now after following the news about the 8.1, I'm pretty sure I'll be fine.

I believe that with BlackBerrys decline the business market is wide open for Windowskin other regions but M$ loves the US too much to care about other markets. Dunno if well ever get Cortana in South Africa...

The 930 is such a beautiful device and resembles the iphone somewhat, that alone, is enough to sway people from spending more on the worse option (iphone) and with only the HTC one looking decent on android, i have a feeling the 930 will gain massive market share here in Europe. It's sad that a phone is only as good as it looks to the general customer, but it is, just ask an iphone user why he/she bought the overpriced mid range phone

2) Allow OEMs more power to customize the OS in non permanent non irreversible ways so they can differentiate. Huawei, and others have stated it so repeatedly. As much as MSFT loves every phone looking the same except for the shell, OEMs aren't going back to that and that 3.4% and anemic OEM support prove MSFT needs to open up and re-think this.

3) keep up with state of the art hardware trends instead of reacting a year late (resolution and cpus).

4) release significant OS updates faster than 18 months with meaningful features instead of minor GDR updates that not just play catchup but re-define and innovate.

5) heavily invest in location services. bing/here maps sucks. The lack of crowdsourcing makes it so that google has 10X more location data and if you're really going to be a "services" company that profits from the usage of the phone not the license fee, you better invest in this area that google did long ago.

6) close the app gap by allowing android apps to run. no seriously, this needs to happen. it would zero the argument WP gets dinged most often on every single review and if you ask people, it has been burned in their minds by all the anti-ms crowd. The only way to reverse this perception is the nuclear option. do it.

7) stop supporting other platforms first with features, or just the app. I'm looking at you remote desktop and skype.

8) trust developers with powerful APIs. This may be finally happening after seeing the new lock screens, but still, google proved the more power you give to devs the richer the platform even if it comes with risks. But guess what, this is what windows is about: power to developers. WP remains too restrictive with seamingly ridiculous limits (such as it took them 3 years to let us do anything but set a lockscreen bitmap because of fears of what devs may do). The more you shacke your developers the more you suffer. time for the training wheels to come off microsoft. Power to the people.

9) refresh the UI already. Basically the style hasn't evolved in 3 years. WP hasn't adapted to high dpi screens which allow for micro-font rendering, and more element desity. They are using the same UI created for 480x800 on 4.0 inch devices. They keep wasting room on huge fonts, overly contrasty color schemes, and overall stagnation. Their biggest innovation was: a third columnd and a wallpaper. Still no folders, still no widgets, still no app organization. Consumers saw WP and didn't embrace it. Time to put lipstick on the pig, or just get a new pig.

10) marketing: show what the phone can do. I think I saw 2 ads that showed office since 2011 and the rest were confusing celeberties going about completely irrelevant stuff. Even for MSFT standards, the WP marketing was a waste of money. By the time they showed office, they had shipped it on iOS and Android...wasting basically the advantage.

Agree on most points, particularly the power to devs. Good example of being screwed over: now we have higher resolutions and of course an expectation that there will be more clear and resolute images on live tiles and lock screens. But manipulating high res images in a background task is super expensive memory wise, and there is still a low limit even in 8.1. Result, if I do nothing other than try to show a high res image from a background task, no network, no http, no other logic, its OutOfMemoryException. Do they want devs to use the platform or not?

As long as they continue release phones 1 at a time to each carrier (VZW, ATT, TMo, and Sprint) it will be impossible to get big jumps in Market share. When any manufacturer for Android releases a new phone (Samsung, HTC, LG, Motorola) there is simultaneous release and the marketing ends up being a combination of Carrier Marketing AND Manufacturer marketing. You may see a ATT ad for the S5 or HTC One (M8) and it will catch your eye and you know you can go to your carrier and get the exact same phone. In fact, they are beginning to release new phones to the regional carriers (US Cellular) also. When MS/Nokia releases a phone it is one at a time to one carrier (1020 on ATT, Icon on Verizon, etc.) and there is no carryover hype/buzz for the phone because you know that phone won't be coming to your carrier so you write off Windows Phone. All your friends whose contract is up will be looking at either the newest iPhone or the hottest Android phone of the moment or last years phone at a big discount ($0-$99 on contract). Unless this changes Windows Phone will continue to have trouble building any momentum - getting market share at tenth's of a point is never going to get you to double digit market share. And, you need double digit market share to get more attention from companies making apps for their customers (Sports Teams, Banks, Brokerage houses, Grocery Stores, Retail, etc) - those are all free to enhance their customer experience and with market share hovering at 3% they don't see the demand from their customers to spend resources on a WP8 app and its maintenance. There is nothing right now to support a breakout from Windows Phone from the 3-4% range after 4 years. Also, because there are so many iPhones and Android phones MS provides excellent support for its services (OneDrive, Outlook, Office, Smartglass, Skype) on those other platforms that there is no need to purchase a Windows Phone to use MS services.

The iPhone model has come and gone. Exclusivity does not work when it comes to an entire phone. Start putting pentaband antennas in all your phones and allow them on networks. If a carrier wants an exclusive then they can get exclusive colors. That's about it. No one is really willing to leave their carriers to get a phone on a different carrier anymore, so stop thinking people will do that. Nokia has great potential to become a major player in the US market, Nokia is just looking at the upfront money that comes from allowing a carrier to have an exclusive and not looking at the long term marketshare that they are preventing themselves from attaining.

Biggest complaint I get from people who switched back to iOS and Android was the notifications...next was apps, the quality and amount of them...some of them just didn't care enough to learn some of the cool features such as threaded messaging, the people/me hubs, amd the multiple uses of Bing..i was also told by a few people their phones were slow, unresponsive and unstable when opening apps or performing certain task....no1 ever knew how to multitask also or were too lazy and went back to the start screen to open apps back up witch would than frustratingly restart the apps instead of resuming them...i never really had these issues but these are just some of the complaints I here

Microsoft's Sales/Marketing department, please give me your attention. If you want people to switch from Android or iOS over to WP, do as I say. Offer a trade in program. Not the same old lame one you had before, but a better one. Trade in an Android phone or iPhone and get a $100 discount on a new WP device and also a $100 WP Store credit for apps. People are heavily invested in other ecosystems and dont want to switch and have to purchase all of their apps and games again, you need to ease that process. If you offer a store credit to purchase apps and such in exchange for a device from a competing platform, you will successfully get people to switch to WP. Do it, and do it now, before it is too late...

I love WP, but these stats are a bit depressing. MS, Nokia, the phone carriers need to push this down peoples throats! I like how MS has sponsored some shows I watch with there devices, but its not enough. We need more and better ads focused at taking over the young demo and showing them its cool to have.

My wife watches the Mindy Project on Fox. Almost every cast member on the show uses Windows Phone (atleast on the show, not sure of personal use). I watch the show just to see all of the nice Nokia devices.

If you're apple fan and have invested in iTunes or android fan who has invested in play store it will take A LOT to switch and convince people to simply abandon app store investments.

And yes let's not forget piracy. Big part of Android success is ability to (fairly easily) pirate anything.

Same thing with apple. It's getting harder but it's still possible to jailbreak iphone to get what you want on it for free.

With MS this is impossible so investment in apps is in order.

Don't get me wrong I don't support piracy (never did never will) but I think that this is sad fact. In matter of facts I keep reading that for every paid app for Android or iPhone there is 8 or even 9 versions installed out there that are pirated.

WP won't make high % here because all devices are exclusively for one carrier or another. I remember when 920 came out for att I wanted switch to att from tmo. I'm sure I wasn't the only one.. but I couldn't because the family contract that was on my name. Anyway, then what came out.. after year or more 925 and 928 came out, again exclusively for tmo and Verizon..less people buy them again. 1020, 1520 also exclusive. Not everybody wants to pay full price for device you know, I know like I did some tmo users have bought 928 for full price..but we are only small number. But what about iPhone, 5s for example, only tmo I think didn't have it but now they do. If I'm not mistaking even Straight Talk has it. So not surprised why iPhone, and android has big chunk of market here

They really really Want the U.S. market because guess which country is most likely to have the most people buying premium devices..America. Contracts and payment plans push that so we are more likely to spend on the 1020 compared to let's say India or Europe. The most popular phones there are low to mid range.

So what? If you keep kicking your lower end consumers they'll leave. No Cortana, no SD Cards is a big fuck you to those of us who buy premium WP in other regions. South Africa and India are English speaking countries but Im pretty sure Microsoft will continue ignoring us. Google Music and iTunes are available in my obscure country but Nokia Music store isn't. Really i cant recommend this platform to anyone. Best hardware but shittiest features in my region.

WP is in a bad state in U.S. One of the reasons why not many developers are showing interest in the platform. Think from their perspective when u have such a large audience to cater to 50% and 43% who would care about 3.4%???

Technically Microsoft experienced more growth than the others, percentage wise. They gained .3% from 3.1% which does mean more people joined windows phone than joined Android or iOS in the same time period (although more people obviously already own the others)

Italy Population: 61,000,000...US Population: 315,000,000...give or take on both
Now not everybody has a Smartphone in either country and I don't know how many people has one either...but let's just assume, for shits and giggles that everyone in both countries did...17% of 61,000,000 is 10,370,000 Windows Phones...And 3.4% of 315,000,000 is 10,710,000 Windows Phones...that would still be 340,000 more Windows Phones sold in the US than in Italy...so to all the people that think that they should focus on other markets instead of the US is just crazy...they can't ignore the US market...any incremental jump in percentage of market share is greater than any Single European country...only China and India and countries with a larger population could outpace us...but those are still emerging markets

The US is a lost cause as long as in general Apple remains able to queue up people selling what is and will remain mid range products as premium. Interesting to note is that the US also is the only market where you basically buy subsidised and thus can afford these phones.

I bought a 620 that way (Zune HD replacement mainly) and use it on AT&T (HSPA+) which isn't an issue because it only supports HSPA+. I could do the same for the 930 but since it's LTE and here in great Ol America we can't get get on the same LTE standard the world does. So it would only get AT&T or T-mobiles HSPA+. Not worth it.

(sip1995) Yes. My first Galaxy Note was the international model. Maybe they will have a model similar to the 1520 RM-938 which has 32GB, Qi wireless charging and works on ATT LTE. Some on att bought that instead of the att model which removed the qi wireless charging. I just do not want a 6 inch phone!

There still aren't enough good options for Windws Phone in the U.S. if you're not on Verizon or AT&T. I have two friends who want to switch and they are on T-Mobile and Sprint. Their only option is to buy an old phone which isn't a great investment. MS needs to work on getting a 52x, 92x and 10/15 type phone on each carrier.

That's what I would do, that's what you and others on this forum would do, but that's not what the average consumer is going to do. If Microsoft wants marketshare to be above 5% there are many things they need to do, but one of those things is making it as easy as possible for anyone in the U.S., regardless of carrier, to get the best phone for their needs.

Microsoft is afraid to get behind their own product. We've seen it with Bing for phones, many other Microsoft apps, office for iPad, phones are always somewhere at the back of their stores, etc. They need to put more weight behind WP.

If Microsoft will put their Nokia flagship phones on T-Mobile maybe it'll grow. T-Mobile don't have no High End Nokia (this forced me to a Note 3) yet 40% of all windows phone users in the US are on T-Mobile.
It would only make sense to get a 1525 & 935

You would love to have the freedom and functionality of Windows Mobile on Windows Phone, trust me.
Balmer and the MS Board completely screwed the company by ignoring mobile so long, and then have been way too slow to get it right. The problem now is that most potential US customers have a big investment in Apps on a competing platform. MS needs to understand how critical this is to most people. When MS shut down the WinMo store they a$$fu¢₹ed their base by not providing a credit for Apps in the WinPhone store. They acted like erasing the values of all the Apps purchased over the years meant nothing. Now they keep hoping iOS and Android customers will feel the same way. But they don't, and MS is doing nothing to make switching an economically viable move. As before, they are deluding themselves.

If Microsoft will put their Nokia flagship phones on T-Mobile maybe it'll grow. T-Mobile don't have no High End Nokia (this forced me to a Note 3) yet 40% of all windows phone users in the US are on T-Mobile.
It would only make since to get a 1525 & 935

Hmm the only Bad thing about Tmobile is the lack of a True High End W8Phone. Please don't believe that bs Verizon map thing. If you base it on speed and not what it's technically called Tmobile is just as fast or faster. I have BLAZING speeds and solid coverage in my area.

Oh I am not going off of marketing. It's all personal experience. and I don't care about some theoretical high speed I will never see. It doesn't do a lot of good when I have little to no coverage. It's no comfort if some other T-Mobile customer 100 miles away from where I am trying to use it has some crazy speed potential while I can't even get a text message out.

Unfortunately the international version want work for me. I need the WiFi calling app. I did just tweet @JohnLagere and asked for a 1525, 935 or ATIV SE or release the Tmo WiFi calling app for those who want to use a High End W8Phone on T-Mobile.

Re: Aashish13, I was just at Target store and the cell phone display only had one Verizon WP and one TMoble WP. Both Nokia, but the fake display models were very light weight, hollow and plastic feeling. The fake displays showing the start screen were static, dull and seems like the glass was tinted. I compared my WP and my screen colors are brightly lit, vibrant and flipping with information. Marketing needs to step up their game!

Would have been great to have several new devices launched to coincide with WP 8.1 here in the USA. I was very disappointed in what came out of build. I was set to buy a new WP with 8.1 but there is nothing to buy...guess I will just settle for updating my 925 to 8.1.

Re: Planoman, I'm disappointed too. My wife and I were hoping to upgrade in three months but must have sdcard support and removable battery and Nokia apps. We'll wait for the next generation of windows phone handsets.

Microsoft please think more for rest of the countries. And states afterwards. Care those countries first wherein your sales are excellent ie India,China,Italy, and many European and Indonesian countries.

I'm in the US, but I really think MS/Nokia need to reward international markets as they stick by them more than the US market. I was so pissed that Nokia MixRadio didn't allow some critical features for countries outside the US (maybe Europe as well). I decided to stop using the app.

Windows Phone is picking up speed here in South Africa thanks to the 520 and I agree they need TV ads a lot of them! They need smart adds too the Nokia ads are there BUT THE DON'T SAY ANYTHING THAT CAN MAKE SOMEONE BUY. There are two 1520 ads I see, one on CNN that really shows cool business features and then there's another 1520 ad on the rest of the channels about some teen asking this man if he can date his daughter (doesn't really make too much explaining) if only they showed only the CNN ad on all channels because I feel people are only buying Nokia because it's Nokia and they don't know how the OS works but hey that's just how I feel about it

Absolutely no excuse that it took 3 yrs to get a notification center, orientation lock, separate volume controls, mp3s not to duplicate, etc. These are not revolutionary features, it's MS playing catch up. As a result, WP is viewed as a 2nd tier OS, and it's very difficult to change that perception.

the exclusivity with att needs to stop immediately. when i went to an att corporate store to purchase the 1520, the sales person came back with a 950 and 2520. he was talking about bundle sales bla bla bla, i said maybe you're trying to waste my time, i want a 1520. this is the att that nokia/msft is relyng to sell wp8 phones.

Italy Population: 61,000,000...US Population: 315,000,000...give or take on both
Now not everybody has a Smartphone in either country and I don't know how many people has one either...but let's just assume, for shits and giggles that everyone in both countries did...17% of 61,000,000 is 10,370,000 Windows Phones...And 3.4% of 315,000,000 is 10,710,000 Windows Phones...that would still be 340,000 more Windows Phones sold in the US than in Italy...so to all the people that think that they should focus on other markets instead of the US is just crazy...they can't ignore the US market...any incremental jump in percentage of market share is greater than any Single European country...only China and India and countries with a larger population could outpace us...but those are still emerging markets

That's the attitude I've taken. Been waiting since 2010 for WP to break out. Honestly I've lost hope it ever really will. So ill just focus on enjoying the platform and not worry about how popular it is. Im not worried because I can't see MS giving up on it anytime soon.

Re: ThePKReddy, MS didn't "kill" the great and wonderful ZUNE PC desktop software. It still functions wonderfully for use as a PC desktop player, connects to WP7 phones, and now connects to the XBox Music & Video services.

Sadly, what you meant was that it doesn't connect to Windows Phone 8+ devices. The ZUNE software functions great even though it hasn't had a dedicated development team for a long time. They did, that good of a job, I guess.

But if you still own a Zune, like I do, then, for example, podcasts haven't been updated in like, forever. And the music store is gone too. It's basically just a front end player, without back-end services.

Italy Population: 61,000,000...US Population: 315,000,000...give or take on both
Now not everybody has a Smartphone in either country and I don't know how many people has one either...but let's just assume, for shits and giggles that everyone in both countries did...17% of 61,000,000 is 10,370,000 Windows Phones...And 3.4% of 315,000,000 is 10,710,000 Windows Phones...that would still be 340,000 more Windows Phones sold in the US than in Italy...so to all the people that think that they should focus on other markets instead of the US is just crazy...they can't ignore the US market...any incremental jump in percentage of market share is greater than any Single European country...only China and India and countries with a larger population could outpace us...but those are still emerging markets

With that logic India, China and Indonesia should be in focus. And on those markets Nokia/Microsoft is selling Android devices. The aqusition of Nokia makes a lot of sense when targeting markets outside the relatively small, stagnant and carrier controlled US market.

You are comparing a continent to one country.. Remember that in most countries in Europe market share is around or more than 10%... If you take in count that there is around 733-739 million people in Europe according to Wikipedia, that is around 73 million windows phones, which is quite a bit more than US... Think a little before you accuse someone to be crazy ..

First of all, the US is a country, not a continent! Go to school! The continent of North America includes the United States, Canada and Mexico. And until the EU becomes a country it is perfectly sensible to compare the populations of two countries. The EU is just a half hearted attempt at combining countries to execute a US like model. After the world realized that what made the US successful at becoming the world's Number One economy...the formation of 50 states united under one country/government...they wanted to compete with some of the same, so they created the EU! But the EU is plagued with problems that the US never experienced...one, every country still wants to be a country and not a state...keep its own sovereignty instead of being relegated to a lesser state-like sovereignty subject to the National sovereignty of the EU...Two, the EU has no one nationalized language, as the US does, effective communication makes ones country more effective...three, its attempt to unite under one currency has failed because some member countries could opt out such as Great Britain still using the British pound primarily, but accepting the Euro...also, member countries have not been effectively combined to create a powerful Government economy under the EU, again because of countries opting not to give up their own sovereignty...the United States grew out of a national government of unified states, adding new states as it expanded a grew...conversely, the EU is a conglomerate of already existing National countries trying to unite under one government, but hindered by each, their own desire to retain all their sovereignty, identity and cultures intact instead of compromising to create a more powerful union...it will never succeed, at least not to the extent of the US model! The United States is a country comprised of 50 states and is not a continent! There's your education for today! Thank you!

Sir, you just went full oftopic .. i thought you wrote america, I know US is not the whole continent but it is still the most of it population wise, it would be far more sensible to compare it to one state (like california for example) because they are far closer in population numbers. And what has political structure of EU and US to do with wp sales ? total shittalk... Europe is still 3rd most populated continent and has the highest WP share.. And so what if Eu is made out of multiple nations speaking different languagues, still 90 % of people i know speaks english as their second language. It is not the point of EU to copy US like model or to unite under one goverment, every nation has to much of its own history to just forget that and make a new country. It is to make the easier trade and better economy betwen EU countries and consequently worldwide. And again i ask what has this to do with windows phone ... i proved you wrong at your "idiotic"statment that it would be " idiotic" to focus on europe. And next time for god sake please save my and your own time and stay on topic and not just jibblejable about how EU or US works, you know .. because US is shit anyway hueuhe

Who is the idiot? I did not say America in my first post nor did I say anything about it being idiotic to focus on other markets per se...only that it would be crazy to do so at the cost of not focusing on the US market...I was not comparing the populations of two countries, but I was comparing the percentage of Windows Phone market shares of two separate countries based on there respective populations...Kantar, or any other focus group, does not release numbers for percentage of California Windows Phone market share...simply because they know what I know, that California is a state of the country of the US, and to list that information in a list of percentages of Windows Phone market share by Country would be idiotic (not that they, themselves, do not have that information)...so to compare Italy and California would be impossible based on the information given nor does it make sense when comparing Windows Phone market share by Country...it does, however, make sense to compare percentages of Windows Phone market shares of any giving country without the support of other countries to beef up the numbers...which is why I did not include other European countries! Microsoft uses its focus based on numbers of Windows Phones sold in any given country with special merit given to how important any particular market is to cell phone sales and expansion...regarding that just alone makes it crazy to ignore the US market...plus the given that the US market is Microsoft's home market (charity begins at home)...it's quite expected here, for the sake of further argument, that a political candidate for president...must carry the support of his/her home state to win, and they focus on that! If basing your said argument on Windows Phone percentage points alone then it would seem rather paltry...but Microsoft doesn't care about percentage over number of units sold, because that is what makes them money...so they can feel secure that they are selling more phones at home than any single European Country...as for going off-topic...that was a test to see if you could read and comprehend, which you failed again, miserably, I might add!

That is because market is saturated, they have to make the right decisions to actually win users over from iPhone and Android. So far I'm liking their strategy. The same old tactic they used to slaughter Mac with Windows by pushing into the business arena.

When was Mac in the business arena? I don´t think MSFT had to push anyone out, they pretty much owned "business" from the start. And where is WP being used massively in business? The 520 pretty much owned their sales in recent times.

You totally mis-interpreted me. Both Apple and MS made computers, while apple was figuring it out (along with other companies) MS made deals with businesses to use PC for their business. and soon that strategy won them billions of users. I never said WP is being used massively but its being pushed by MS slowly but surely. While Apple and Google let the companies choose whatever they want, MS is asking them to use WP. Those who choose know very well its the best. links above.

^This...I have a WP and it's not even tied to any carrier. If you really want one, there's no excuse on not having one. Also as far as I know, every major carrier has a some type of WP. If you want a particular one, do like me and buy it unlocked and use it on the carrier of your choice. Sure, you'll pay more upfront, but less monthly.

I am only interested in the 1520 but getting it unlocked was too difficult ATT doesn't want to unlock their phones so they make it as difficult as possible. Buying an international unlocked would mean no LTE which is simply out of the question. I'm not going to switch from Tmo so basically its up to Nokia/Microsoft to get their phones to different carriers. They better get it right or I'm going to have to get another type of phone.

Well I'm waiting for Windows 8.1 with updated processors atm but once August/Sept rolls around I will be buying a phone from Tmo it will either be a 1520 like phone or whatever large phones are available. Hopefully Microsoft/Nokia step up and realize part of the reason they only have 3.4% hold in the US is because of carrier exclusives.

And then the 1st high end device (Lumia 930) will only be available in Europe and not USA, where Cortana will be available. I thought with Balmer gone they would actually start to make good decisions when it comes to their mobile strategy..